Confessions
by Darkeiya
Summary: Sometimes it's hard to admit your feelings. :: Jet x Wave ::


**A Jet x Wave fluff fic. Don't like the pairing, then don't read it. If you do like the pairing, then enjoy. I tried to make them as in-character as I could, but you all know how fluff fics go...**

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Jet leaned back in his black chair, propping his feet up on the desk and clasping his hands behind his head. Across from him, on the other side of the desk, stood Wave, with her arms crossed.

"Well, Wave, it looks like you've got what you wanted. I'm here, you're here, Storm's not. So spill it," Jet said. "What did you want to talk about that you didn't want our big grey friend to hear?"

Wave looked down at the floor, shuffling one of her feet. She closed her eyes, sighed, and looked back up at Jet. "You know, I'm starting to have second thoughts about telling you this. Knowing you, Jet, you'd probably take this too casually."

"That's the reputation I get for not being so serious? Come on. You were practically begging at my feet to get Storm away for once. Don't want your pleading to be in vain, do you?"

"I wasn't begging or pleading! The term I prefer to use is _requesting_."

"Whatever. You don't have forever, so get on with it. Storm's not going to keep looking for junk once he remembers that he cleaned out Metal City just two days ago. Given his rate of remembering things like that, I'd say he'll be figuring it out any minute now, seeing as how he left five minutes ago. That gives you about five more minutes while he returns, and then any alone time you wanted is out the window."

Wave grumbled a couple of expletives under her breath. "Fine. But before I tell you, you'll have to make a few promises."

"If they won't screw me over like last time's 'couple of promises', then fire away," Jet said.

"Okay. Do you promise that you won't tell anybody about this?"

"Not even Storm?" Jet asked.

"Especially not Storm!" Wave quickly replied.

"You really don't want him to know about this, do you... ?" the hawk gave a bit of a smirk, as though he was planning to tell anyway.

"No, and I have my reasons why. But anyway, next promise. Do you promise you won't laugh at me?"

"Oh, when have I ever laughed at you, Wave?"

Wave thought for a moment, and began counting off on her fingers. "Let's see. Several times in Green Cave, a few times here in the zeppelin, I think once at Sand Ruins and then that one time in... where was it, Sky Sa--"

Jet waved his hands in exasperation. "Okay, okay, forget I asked. Any more 'wild' promises for me to make?"

"Just one more. Do you promise..." Wave paused, as though she was trying to think of the words to say it in. "Do you promise not to exploit this as a weakness?"

The hawk frowned. If she was going to make him promise something like that, maybe it wasn't half as pointless as he'd first thought. He shifted from his reclined position and sat upright in the chair, hands on the desk now. "That big, huh? Well, seeing as how I don't know what 'this' is yet, I can't exactly use it as blackmail, now can I?"

"True. But don't use it against me once you know it," Wave said.

"Fine, fine. I promise not to use it against you." To emphasize his honesty, Jet traced a small 'X' mark on his shoulder. Then he looked back at Wave. "Really now. You're acting like you can't trust me with this. We're Babylon Rogues-- we might be thieves, but honesty is crucial among team members, right? You can tell me."

The swallow sighed. "I guess. Give me a moment to compile my thoughts."

Jet nodded, and Wave turned away. She appeared to be thinking hard, occasionally shaking her head. At one point, Jet could have sworn he saw a blush creeping across the swallow's face. Eventually, she turned back to face him.

"There's been something on my mind," Wave began, her voice quiet to the point where Jet had to lean towards her just to hear. "Thoughts of it have been bugging me for several weeks now. These thoughts didn't do much to me at first, but then they began to distract me during the daytime, and became the only thing my dreams were about..."

Wave stopped to take few breaths, trying to fight off the nerves that had embedded themselves in her stomach. She was sacrificing a lot of dignity to admit this, but she'd decided that her pride wasn't worth her thoughts eating her up from inside. That wasn't the only reason she was trying to calm herself-- normally, Jet would have made a smart-mouthed remark, but he was silent.

_'I guess he does know when to bite his tongue and listen, sometimes,'_ Wave told herself silently. This thought calmed her down a bit.

Indeed, Jet was biting his tongue-- quite literally, too. He was extremely tempted to heave a fake theatrical sob and "cry" about losing the team's techie to the looney bin. But Jet managed to keep quiet. He figured that Wave would probably not appreciate it if he broke one of the promises he'd made just a minute previously.

"I've tried everything I could to dispel these thoughts, but when I do, they just keep coming back. Now they distract me to the point where I can't even think correctly. They aren't the center of my dreams anymore-- they keep me awake at night now."

The Type-W had taken a minor blow last week, and it still wasn't completely fixed. Usually it would have taken three days at the very most for Wave to fix it. Jet had been wondering about that after Wave had taken it into her room for repairs, but he'd eventually written it off as a side effect of her recent... lack of sleep. So far, her story seemed to be falling into place with the recent events. Jet snapped back to reality when Wave leaned over his desk, looking him straight in the eyes. Her voice was barely a whisper.

"All I can do now is tell you, before I have a mental breakdown. Do you know the something that's been on my mind?"

Wave paused and looked at the hawk expectantly. Jet shook his head, a confused look on his face. This confusion became even more evident when Wave averted her eyes from his, and the blush crept over her face again. The room might have been silent, but the air was charged with tension just waiting to be released.

"Jet... that something is you."

For once in his life, Jet was left without a good sarcastic remark. His mind raced... he had to say something, anything. Surely Wave was joking, and she just needed a good response... right? While that thought was able to let him look Wave in the face, it didn't calm down the pounding of his heart.

"R-Really now? With all the fighting you do with Storm, I... I assumed it'd be him you would... crush on, and not... you know, me. You know, because... opposites... attract?" Jet squeaked, immediately wanting to slap himself for sounding so stupid. The desire to slap himself changed into the desire to have Storm give him a thorough beatdown when he saw the insulted look on the swallow's face.

"Your assumptions are far from the mark, Jet!" Wave yelled, making Jet flinch. "I mean, sure, Storm probably wouldn't be a bad choice... if you overlook the fact that he picks fights with me every single freaking chance he gets! And, yes, there are those who believe in the opposites-attract theory, but... but I'm just not one of them. No matter what it may look like, Storm isn't my point of interest! And furthermore, I'm not exactly crushing on you. It's more like a full-blown infatuation by now. But you wouldn't know anything about what that's like."

The swallow sat down, leaned her back against the desk, and hugged her knees to her chest, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"You're too self-centered to return the feelings. I don't know why I fell for you of all people, but I know I fell hard. I think I might have broken something on impact," Wave mumbled. She closed her eyes, a tear escaping as she did so. Her last words were a whisper. "I think it might have been my heart."

Jet could barely hear her mumbles, but he heard them all the same. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, opened it again, and then just gave a sigh. Guilt was already prodding him with a pointed stake for making her feel insulted, just for saying the first thing that came to his mind. He'd have to think his next words over carefully. The sound of light sobbing came up from the other side of the desk. This struck the hawk by surprise, as Wave was never one to cry. He got up from his chair and walked over to the swallow, who was still curled up into herself. Jet crouched down next to her, and after a moment of thought, decided to give up some of his own dignity. He reached up and stroked her cheek with his hand, wiping away some of the tears in doing so.

"Chill, Wave," he said. "I never said I didn't return the feelings."

Wave looked up at him, her aquamarine eyes still shining with tears not yet released. Without another word, she threw her arms around Jet and buried her face into his chest feathers, still crying. He tensed up at first, but then put his arms around her shoulders, holding her tightly.

_'Sure, I didn't say I didn't return them, but I didn't actually say I return them, either...'_ Jet thought. _'But first things first, though-- she's gotta stop crying.'_ The hawk wouldn't admit it, but he hated the sound of girls crying.

"You never really struck me as the type to cry, you know," Jet said.

Amid her sobs into his chest, Wave managed to speak. "I don't cry. I'm not crying."

"Then why are my chest feathers getting damp?"

"It must be raining."

"Indoors?" Jet sighed with exasperation. Wave could be so stubborn sometimes.

The swallow pulled her face away from his chest, still sniffling a bit. Tears were still on her cheeks, and her pink eyeshadow was smudged around her eyes, as well as on the white down she had been rubbing her face against. "Oh, look. I rubbed my makeup on you."

"You can rub it all you want, but just listen for a minute," Jet said, keeping his arms around her. He closed his eyes and delved into his mind, trying to find words that would let him express how he felt. When the words left his mouth, they sounded like another person speaking through him. "Anyone who doesn't know you that well can say you're a pretty-faced bitch. I thought that when we first met up all that time ago. But after knowing you for... how many years, now... I've come to find that you have your times when you're nice. I don't see you as much of a bitch any more. It's just another one of your moments, like when you're being nice."

Jet opened his eyes, reached a hand up and stroked her cheek again. "You're pretty brave, you know. I wouldn't be able to give up enough of my dignity to admit how I felt to anyone. Especially if they were someone I saw almost every day. That's just another thing I can admire about you, I guess."

Wave looked up at Jet and rubbed her reddened eyes. "I told you my feelings, Jet. Now... now stop beating around the bush. I want to hear you say it. Do you... do you feel the same way towards me?"

The hawk remained silent, but there was something working furiously behind his blue eyes. Wave waited for his reply.

_'Hell yes, I do! I've only dreamed you'd admit to liking me!'_ Jet's thoughts were trying to come out, but his ego was keeping them off his tongue. He didn't want to make himself look foolish. Taking a breath, Jet brought his other hand up so he was cradling Wave's face in his hands.

"Do I feel the same way towards you, Wave?" he began. "I'll let you decide with this for an answer."

Jet closed his eyes once again as he leaned forward and closed the gap between them, gently nuzzling his beak against Wave's. The swallow's eyes widened with slight surprise, then closed as she accepted the "answer" she'd been given.

**BAM!**

"Hey, Boss!" Storm said as he burst into the room. He ran right past them and slammed his hands repeatedly on the desk. "Did Wave mess up your schedule again? Because when I got to Metal City to collect the junk, I remembered that I cleaned it out two days ago, so there was nothing for me to..."

The albatross's voice trailed off when he noticed the two forms near his feet. Jet and Wave had stopped nuzzling and were looking up at him, embarrassed. Wave flushed darkly and quickly looked away from Storm, who was trying to hold back a laugh.

"I guess Wave did mess up your schedule, in a way..." he snickered.

"What? What are you talking about?" Jet asked.

Storm shook his head, a smirk on his face. "If you wanted to have some alone time with Wave, all you had to do was say so and I would have let you be."

"Err... it's not... what it looks like?" Jet added, a bit too late. A slight red tinge was already visible on his face.

"Whatever you say, Boss," Storm said, walking out of the room. He snickered again as he shut the doors. Still blushing, Wave and Jet stared blankly at one another even after the sound of heavy footsteps faded away.

**END**


End file.
